Gamers, Beauty, and Capitalism

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  • Опубліковано 25 вер 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 482

  • @pingpong5877
    @pingpong5877 5 місяців тому +134

    I feel like I have to understand the South Korean gender war in order to understand why Stellar Blade was made.

    • @btuard
      @btuard 5 місяців тому +6

      No, we don’t need a 2 hour long video split in multiple parts.

    • @Fantallana
      @Fantallana 5 місяців тому

      Basically, South Korea is the perfect example of how anti-feminism always leads to- and is ultimately centred around- absolute hatred of women. Birth rates are declining because the men have made themselves utterly unlovable and impossible for women to tolerate being around.

    • @Bonaboo
      @Bonaboo 5 місяців тому

      Basically South Korea is the prime example of what anti-feminism really is (absolute misogyny) and what is always leads to when it’s allowed to fester (males making themselves utterly unlovable, to the point where women have to avoid partnering with them at all costs, and the birth rate declines below replacement level.)

    • @Fantallana
      @Fantallana 5 місяців тому

      Basically SK is a dying country with birth rates below replacement level, because anti-feminism has made the male population utterly unlovable. To the extant that women cannot stand to partner up with them. So those men turn to video games to distract themselves from how miserable their own anti-feminism has made them. They craft those games with the idea of what they think women should be, instead of working on themselves.

    • @Bonaboo
      @Bonaboo 5 місяців тому +1

      SK has birthrates below replacement level, it’s really incredible. Anti-feminism really is the death-knell of civilizations now, half the population made themselves unl0vable to women, destroying the potential for future families.

  • @RedMageUltra
    @RedMageUltra 5 місяців тому +98

    I like how Baldur’s Gate III is “safe sex” when streamers can’t show those scenes on UA-cam or Twitch but are everywhere in certain adult websites 😂

    • @cardboardtubeknight
      @cardboardtubeknight 5 місяців тому +6

      Yes, the game where you can bed a bear is safe.

    • @DioBrando-qr6ye
      @DioBrando-qr6ye 5 місяців тому +18

      It's safe in the sense that it's safe from moral judgement. To understand what I'm saying open any media mainstream publication and count how many times they praise BG III's sexuality, or how many articles are dedicated to enthusiastically "goon" on sexy male characters.
      Then open the same media and count how many times they found something "problematic" about any game with a traditional straight male appeal (even Street Fighter VI went through this, as soon as the leotard costume for Cammy came out).
      Lately I followed the discussion on X about Stellar Blade, and I came out with a pretty clear definition of what is safe and what isn't (from the keyboards of the gaming journalists and western developers themselves): basically, if there's something gay in a piece of media, anything, it's safe,.If it caters to straight men (or lesbians, but they apparently don't count), it's morally reprehensible.
      On the visual side: if the women are: either muscular, imposing, dominating, androgynous, with harsh male-like features (trans-coded they call them) then it's safe, if it's the other way around it's immoral.
      I hope you got something out of this.

    • @HellyeahRook
      @HellyeahRook 5 місяців тому +10

      It's cause it's a reference to loli/underage 'sexy'. BG3 doesn't have underage stuff in it so it's considered safe. This is aaaaallll about a small subsect of gamers being upset about sexy young girls in their games.

    • @cardboardtubeknight
      @cardboardtubeknight 5 місяців тому +2

      @@HellyeahRook I mean I guess there is a fair bit of that in games. Also BG3 has consent and the like, like a lot of stuff in some games is voyeurism or it is targeted at children or just straight up harassment. I can see how people might object to that hard.

    • @DioBrando-qr6ye
      @DioBrando-qr6ye 4 місяці тому +7

      @JustinW332 Oh, you mean sexuality is OK only if it's boring (i.e. follows real world morality rules). No wonder people prefer Asian media.
      Now, try to apply the same logic to action and violence. Who would watch an action movie where you could only depict moral deeds on the screen? John Wick could have never been made in this scenario.

  • @NiamhIsBig
    @NiamhIsBig 5 місяців тому +81

    I had this big piece about how the positioning of this game and sexuality in gaming as a culture war front had shades of gamergate tactics and how the "safe" vs "unsafe" sexuality argument felt like a dog whistle for framing non conventional sexual content (read, LGBT+ content) as invading "normal" spaces. Then I accidently refreshed the page and lost it all and I don't have the energy to retype all of it...
    also if they're example of "ugly" girls in games are normal looking women their ideas of women are heavily skewed by hyper sexual content and they should go touch grass.

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 5 місяців тому +3

      You don’t know what a dog whistle is. It was never a secret what people were referring to. As we can see with Hades 2. it's a completely correct take

    • @moustik31
      @moustik31 4 місяці тому +5

      If I understand correctly, safe means fanservicy?! Do Gamers (TM) feel "unsafe" in games, where there are no fanservice?! How fragile of them.
      /kidding

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 4 місяці тому

      @@moustik31 you did not understand correctly 😂

    • @Channel-23s
      @Channel-23s 3 місяці тому +3

      That’s the great thing about reality being there’s ugly/normal looking girls and beautiful/sexy women too yet if the “normal looking girls” look completely different then the IRL models/actors then yes you are actively making them look bad and is a thing so you should cut it out or criticize it rather then complain about sexy characters in fantasy games and “touch grass”

    • @Netherfly
      @Netherfly 5 днів тому

      @@Channel-23s The thing about voice actors, is that they're only portraying a character's *voice*. The voice is meant to reflect the character, the character is not meant to reflect the voice -- let alone the face or body of the person producing that voice.
      I dearly hope you're taking that same energy and applying it to criticism of literally everyone voicing anime-style characters and non-human characters, but we both know that ain't happenin'.

  • @Astribulus
    @Astribulus 5 місяців тому +22

    Today is launch day for Stellar Blade. It’s been a constant in the social feeds for months. Your video is the first I’ve seen mention the gameplay in any way.

  • @swtormadness
    @swtormadness 5 місяців тому +32

    The issue is more the camera rather than the design itself. When the protagonist's butt is deliberately centered, it raises concerns from a feminist perspective of the media studies. This type of approach is by all means and purposes an objectifying of the woman's body, which is counterproductive to creating more respectful and inclusive gaming environment for women. There is a delicate balance between promoting female sexual empowerment and objectification of the women's bodies for male consumption. It's fine to portray woman's body as sexy. What is not fine is treating said body as something to be consumed by men through male gaze. An object, rather than a person. This type of practice often contributes to perpetuation of harmful stereotypes and behaviors towards women in real life. Baldur's Gate 3 is indeed a great game. It's a well-designed game that prioritizes characters and story over objectification of their bodies. The camera angles in BG3 are very respectful, avoiding unnecessary focus on physical attributes of character's bodies (yes, even in sex scenes, the camera focuses more on the act itself than the details of the physical bodies involved). This approach aligns with feminist media studies that focus on representing characters in a respectful and non-exploitative manner. It's true that research has shown that queer women also respond to male gaze. It doesn't mean however, that we shouldn't address the issue of objectification. We should be mindful of the messages it sends to groups that already have harmful preconceived notions about women, their bodies and their place in society. I'm by no means trying to say "blame the game rather than the people who use it to do harm", because this type of approach is never something I would support. What I mean to say is that every medium speaks for itself and sends messages that can be harmful, but even if that's the case they shouldn't be censored, but their implications should be definitely discussed. By doing so, we can combat the notion that real women are simply objects that exist solely for male satisfaction, both within the gaming community and in real life.
    Does the controversy surrounding this game is mostly about the treatment of female bodies in the gaming industry? Yes. However, that is an issue that existed for years, and was the reason behind real-world harassment of women within video game spaces and the game industry. It's true that video games that were made by people who didn't view women as people for gamers who shared such views, contributed to real world harm being done. Stating that neither of the presented arguments is about the Stellar Blade itself is irrelevant, as the focus of the controversy was never the game, but the perpetuation of objectification of women. This game serves as just another example, rather than the source.
    I think that people who saw the trailers and shown their displeasure with the game didn't inherently oppose the inclusion of sexuality and sexy characters, but were concerned about how their bodies are treated by the game's camera in context of the objectification. Which are two different things. A naked woman can stand in the center of the room and never be framed in an objectifying way, while still being sexually alluring. The camera is capable of portraying character's body in a respectful way, no matter how it looks. Focusing on specific parts of the body however can be seen as to be done for the sole reason of objectification, as this type of camera framing carries implicit connotations as such. If the game industry, which has historically been male-dominated, didn't continuously produce and promote video games that aligned with the views of sexist gamers since its inception, it would likely not contribute to aggressive behavior of those gamers in form of attempting to exclude others from this space - particularly women, queer people, and people of color, by claiming that these spaces are exclusively meant for a select group of gamers (i.e. the gamer dudebros) and viewing any game not tailored to their specific demographic as a threat to their community. (They often act like children who throw a tantrum because another child dared to enter "their" sandbox). Similarly in the film industry there has been a long-standing issue where queer people and people of color have been depicted as villains by either coding the villains with stereotypical behaviors or depicting them with racial features. This in turn perpetuated the negative stereotypes of those groups by reinforcing the idea of them representing the "bad guy" that needs to be defeated. As a result, there is now a growing expectation among audiences for movies to feature these marginalized groups in positive and realistic roles, such as heroes, friends, and romantic partners, in order to accurately reflect the diversity of the real world. As well as to move away from outdated and harmful stereotypes perpetuated by past media representations which both stemmed from people's biases, but also fed them as well. We can't simply ignore that this issue is a loop. People who are biased create media that represent their biases, and then people with the same biases consume those media and end up confirming their pre-existing biases. Only by creating more media that don't feed those biases, we can actually combat this issue. (And of course by exposing biased people to those media - which is much easier when there is a lot of them rather than singular popular examples).
    Capitalism as an issue of the game industry is also definitely at fault here. Instead of focusing on money, game studios should allow their developers to create video games for any audience, not only the ones that earn the studio the most money. This type of approach could improve the industry as a whole, as it would encourage the diversification of titles that are released, and diminish the perception that "all video games objectify women" by simply balancing the numbers out. By creating the titles that would cater to the niches which would not approve of such objectification we could created a more balanced representation within the industry. After all something is a problem only when it's thwarting anything different in size.
    It's actually very funny that conservative pushback against sexuality in the video games ended in censorship that serves no one. While at the same time conservative gamers who support such views in real life by voting for conservative party or actively pushing non-men from gaming spaces, want sexy women in video games without realizing that they themselves made it impossible for them to exist in the first place.
    I feel this article tackles the issues around this game best: www.inverse.com/gaming/stellar-blade-the-male-gaze-sweet-baby
    Anyway, I know I already wrote a bible, so I will try to finish quickly. My niche are feminist media studies, so obviously this topic is important to me. If there is truly nobody that cares about this issue, then I'm dead. Once again, the design of Eve is not a concern, especially considering she is based on real Korean women (however I noticed in the comments here that people raised concerns in regard to how much the model's body was changed). The problem is the camera itself that doesn't treat Eve as a person, but rather as an object to ogle. However sad it is, we shouldn't call for censorship. Problematic media have a place to exist, and nobody is a monster for enjoying them. Talking about them is beneficial for everyone. Censoring them is beneficial to none. However, we shouldn't ignore that such choice caters to the pre-existing beliefs and biases of its target audience, and it's the same for any other issue like queerphobia, racism, ableism etc. If representation didn't matter at all, minorities wouldn't push for more representation of it. It doesn't only help us see ourselves reflected in the media we consume, but also reminds others that we are all equal as human beings. That we are all the same people. Movie or a game showing a certain group in a positive light can do wonders for people who may not have previously been exposed to those groups. It helps them challenge pre-conceived notions that they may have been taught by their family or society, which may have portrayed these groups as inferior or lacking in humanity. (And as we all know - dehumanization is the first step to eradication of those you don't see as human).
    The same principle should also be applied to female characters in video games. Women can be portrayed as sexually alluring, however, it is important to also show those women as individuals with their own aspirations, motivations, and feelings. To hammer home that they're people just like men it's important to depict them as complex individuals with agency, no matter if they're sexy or not or if they wear baggy or skin-tied clothes. (And as we know from the example of Mikaila from Transformers - objectification takes away from the character, because focus is on their body, rather than who they are as an individual. Camera framing can distract the viewer from listening to the character in favor of ogling them as an object). If Stellar Blade doesn't manage to do so, it will simply be added to the long list of similarly disappointing titles that preferred to create an object of desire, rather than a person. Mind you, a list that is far longer than the list of video games that actually succeeded in giving women justice. Let's just balance it out.

  • @CasualFox12495
    @CasualFox12495 4 місяці тому +26

    I love that God of War had an interactive sex minigame 2 years before hot coffee

  • @icarusthefinal3206
    @icarusthefinal3206 5 місяців тому +89

    Yeah, Stellar Blade looks pretty, and it'll probably be fun, but that turbo online engagement bait stance of "this is what a real woman looks like! Not these mannish brutes in these woke games!" That shit is so annoying. Especially when they intentionally use bad screenshots of the "ugly" characters to try to prove their point.
    On Eve, her design is definitely not 1:1 with the irl model. The director says they only used Shin Jae-Eun's body as reference, and frankly Eve's thighs look much thicker still. Eve's face is an original design.
    Anyway, a video critique, not trying to be rude: dialog is kinda repetitive. I figure this wasn't scripted, which is totally fine, but.

    • @AshParth560
      @AshParth560 5 місяців тому

      💯

    • @KalicoKal
      @KalicoKal 5 місяців тому +11

      bro i draw r34 and you are spot on its exclusively just her bust they left alone it literally would have been cheaper to pay an artist to design eve even if the model did it for free just based on the cost of the tech to scan her in you need dozens of high quality cameras that cost hundreds to thousands of dollars for that

    • @beyvntarson3123
      @beyvntarson3123 5 місяців тому +8

      Yeah, I just fiind Eve boring and whatever. Like sure she's conventionally attractive but I don't give a fuck. I'm not gonna care about a wooden character because they are are hot. Especially because she doesn't interact with it all. She's sexualized, but not allowed to be sexual.
      The real point is if the game is gonna be fun. World, characters, and story looks boring so far and gameplay seems okay. Hopefully it picks up and the demo was just uncharacteristically weak.

    • @KalicoKal
      @KalicoKal 5 місяців тому

      @@beyvntarson3123 idk yoko taro literally only praised when he met with stellar blades creator so im guessing its average at best but not world breaking

    • @dillon1037
      @dillon1037 5 місяців тому

      Yeah, it's odd that he kept bringing up the fact that a model did mo-cap for it when the design, especially the face, looks nothing like her.

  • @zacharybosley1935
    @zacharybosley1935 5 місяців тому +161

    Praying for health in the comment section

    • @agramuglia
      @agramuglia  5 місяців тому +60

      It's only a matter of time before it goes wild.

    • @Gaia_BentosZX5
      @Gaia_BentosZX5 5 місяців тому +2

      @@agramuglia About as wild as chat in a VinnyVinesauce stream... So... Pretty normal.

    • @Eggofficial09
      @Eggofficial09 5 місяців тому +1

      🙏🙏🙏🙏

  • @BubblegumCrash332
    @BubblegumCrash332 5 місяців тому +142

    Look into how crazy South Korean gamers treat feminism. It's unbelievable. I thought it was not real at first that's how nuts it is

    • @Bonaboo
      @Bonaboo 5 місяців тому

      South Korea is a perfect example of what anti-feminism really means, and what it always leads to: absolute hatred of women. Women in any position of power (even low-level politicians) get randomly attacked by men all the time. The birth rates are abysmal, because the women cannot stand to parter up with the men there. South Korea might literally fall because of it, and it will be anti-feminism’s fault.

    • @KalicoKal
      @KalicoKal 5 місяців тому +15

      how bad is it?

    • @Despoina_Nyx
      @Despoina_Nyx 5 місяців тому +1

      @@KalicoKal think gamer gate but perpetual. That is their baseline. Their whole gamer culture there is a cesspool of mysoginistic hate and extremist to the point of mobbing company buildings for the sin of making a man looking more submissive than a woman (They gave him a choker and the women had a more covering swimsuit.)

    • @melaniey.5596
      @melaniey.5596 5 місяців тому +1

      @@KalicoKalbad enough that the Chinese gamers, who aren’t exactly good with women either, are going “wtf dude you need to chill”.
      And as in, Korean misogynists are so rabid that companies are changing game promotional material and firing employees

    • @BubblegumCrash332
      @BubblegumCrash332 5 місяців тому

      @@KalicoKal ua-cam.com/video/-Im4YAMWK74/v-deo.htmlsi=RIj7nC6GvuD-bGA4

  • @amethystimagination3332
    @amethystimagination3332 5 місяців тому +84

    I think at least part of the problem comes from the clear double standards, most of the time games have male characters wearing very practical clothes and the women wear lingerie. Personally I’d like to see more of a balance, if you’re game is meant to be goofy and kind of sexy then put men in metal speedos next to the women in metal bikinis, if you want something a little more grounded in reality then let the women cover up their vital organs. It looks stupid when you try to have it both ways

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 5 місяців тому +6

      There doesn’t need to be a balance. Strange how you don’t care about this balance when it comes from western developers, objectifying men and not women

    • @Bob-bs9ok
      @Bob-bs9ok 4 місяці тому +31

      ​@@ExpertContrarianwhere are the games objectifying men?

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 4 місяці тому +2

      @@Bob-bs9okyou think objectification is just skimpy clothing? 😂😂😂

    • @Bob-bs9ok
      @Bob-bs9ok 4 місяці тому +21

      @@ExpertContrarian I was just asking for examples?
      Also objectificanion isn't *just* skimpy clothing, that is only part of it. Skimpy clothing is sexualisation, the objectification is due to how women typically only exist as narrative tools, not characters.

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 4 місяці тому +2

      @@Bob-bs9ok if you know that it’s treating peoples as objects then you should be able to come up with your own examples. You’re being disingenuous. You just don’t care when it’s one way. The vast majority of depictions of men are only as enemies to be destroyed…

  • @lovenaartjies
    @lovenaartjies 4 місяці тому +15

    To be perfectly frank, Hyung-Tae Kim has been designing characters in this style for more than two decades now. Him and J. Scott Campbell should battle it out to see who can draw a character with the most wonky proportions.
    Also, the Leisure Larry name drop was a flex, and I respect that.

  • @cardboardtubeknight
    @cardboardtubeknight 5 місяців тому +64

    The people who think that women aren't sexy in games anymore aren't actually playing games. There are so many JRPGs with women who are really hot, fighting games with women who are really hot and a lot of them are on the PS5. There has been three Granblue Fantasy games in the last few years and there is a whole race of women who are big chested, short stack ladies with horns. Pretty much any Atlus game that comes out has gorgeous women in it: Unicorn Overlord, any of the Persona games, etc. And the people who get mad about Aloy just come off seeming really silly to me; she's an attractive woman to some people. There are a lot of smaller games out there in the same kind of world as Senran Kagura. I would much rather have another one of those than another souls-lite like Stellar Blade.

    • @isimioyekunlemarktaiwo3643
      @isimioyekunlemarktaiwo3643 4 місяці тому +5

      ​@K.C-2049 but apparently some people think she is ugly😂😂 those people need to touch grass

    • @alexgomez6723
      @alexgomez6723 4 місяці тому +2

      So essentially just switch your product consumption to another country.

    • @madnessarcade7447
      @madnessarcade7447 Місяць тому +1

      U named Japanese games their issues are with women in western games

    • @cardboardtubeknight
      @cardboardtubeknight Місяць тому +10

      @@madnessarcade7447 Then don't play those games if you don't like them, but stop making it some campaign like they're out to get you. There are hot women in Hades, Witcher, Horizon, Uncharted, Cyberpunk, etc. The problem isn't that the women are ugly, the problem is that incels don't realize their beauty standard aren't everyone else's.

    • @henryfleischer404
      @henryfleischer404 Місяць тому

      Yeah but I don't play JRPGs, and games don't cater exactly to my specific tastes!
      I'm glad I've been getting into game development, lust is a good motivator.

  • @bobbybooshay5388
    @bobbybooshay5388 4 місяці тому +45

    Genuinely my problem with Eve is that she just looks so.... "We have 2B at home". Nier Automata and Bayonetta both have very distinctive sexy lady characters who's gimmick is easy to understand with one look. Eve looks like a weird cyber race car driver. The design should have gone through more drafts in my opinion.
    Everything else admittedly looks kinda cool. Kinda sci fi dieselpunk.

  • @sethimothy
    @sethimothy 5 місяців тому +88

    Stellar Blade ain't the only thing that came, ya know what I'm saying? ... YOU KNOW WHAT I AM SAYING?!
    And anyone who has been following the Korean game market would not at all have been surprised with the controversy behind this game. There is an exceptional "anti-woke" "anti-feminism" pushback from the Korean market, that has seen some buy-in and grab-in from western markets for a number of reasons ranging from nostalgia to grifting. This game, by its very nature, was going to have a very specific subset of fans that were ready to come to blows over it.

  • @kingcyrusthegreat3887
    @kingcyrusthegreat3887 5 місяців тому +95

    Saying its revolutionary is stupidity at least for me. Like lol i grew up on bloodrayne like it seems to me some of these gamers dont play older games.

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 5 місяців тому +5

      “Older games” That’s the point… Such a bad strawman as well. A small amount of people using a term wrong is meaningless. The vast majority are saying it’s a return to form, literally the opposite.

    • @WaruiDeshou
      @WaruiDeshou 5 місяців тому +14

      ​@@ExpertContrarianWell then people should not say something is revolutionary if they don't know whether or not something is indeed revolutionary. Throwing around that word implies knowledge of history.

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 5 місяців тому +2

      @@WaruiDeshouCool, you’re still missing the point 😂

    • @kyral4978
      @kyral4978 5 місяців тому +26

      ​@@ExpertContrarian You're saying traditionally attractive, sexually provocative women are only in older games, and that's not true. Gacha games, current gen fighting games, skins galore in every genre, there are modern options everywhere. 🤷‍♂

    • @cardboardtubeknight
      @cardboardtubeknight 5 місяців тому +17

      @@ExpertContrarian Nier is not an older game.

  • @xMawkKnightx
    @xMawkKnightx 5 місяців тому +142

    The main issue I have with these culture war types is that they muddy the discourse when it comes to actual issues in the gaming industry. The over bloated budgets, layoffs, over exaggerated ROI for greedy investors that don't even care about the art, microtransactions, etc. These are the actual issues. Not some safe horny bs. I don't know how conservatives easily fall for non issues when everything else is so obvious.

    • @SkorpionSSs
      @SkorpionSSs 5 місяців тому +9

      Maybe journos should report on that, instead of how much of a predator you are if you like Stellar Blade?

    • @xMawkKnightx
      @xMawkKnightx 5 місяців тому +36

      @@SkorpionSSs first off, they DO report on that. Both mainstream and non mainstream journalists talk about the actual issues quite often. It's also been a talking point for almost a year now. Your algorithm on social media must be screwed up if you're not seeing it.
      2. U make it seem like journalists have had this prime focus on SB's audience. Not true. There's literally one, or at the most, 3 articles that spoke about the culture war around SB. It's not a mainstream topic. People just pretend that it is.

    • @SkorpionSSs
      @SkorpionSSs 5 місяців тому +8

      @@xMawkKnightx Funny cause all I see Kotaku and the like post lately is culture war bullshit.
      But hey, maybe it really is just the algorithm since you can't pay me to access their site.

    • @xMawkKnightx
      @xMawkKnightx 5 місяців тому +29

      @@SkorpionSSs it's that kind of non argument that just shows me that you're chronically on twitter. Mentioning kotaku isn't the argument u think it is. Most ppl on all aisles don't agree with their articles so you're not saying much there. I'm going to assume that you not only follow kotaku, but also the editor and some other staff members because u wanna pick apart everything lil thing they post. U probably also follow many culture war accounts. I mean... fine? U do u, but then u can't bring anything to the table because your algorithm is stuck in a culture war bs bubble. See my point?

    • @SkorpionSSs
      @SkorpionSSs 5 місяців тому

      @@xMawkKnightx my algorithm is mostly reddit stories about failed relationships and cheating, with some stand-up comedy and asmongold videos :-/ I'm mentioning kotaku because they are one of the most prominent gaming journalism sites and are very liked by industry professionals.

  • @ChaosAngelZero
    @ChaosAngelZero 5 місяців тому +17

    UA-camr HappyDaddyKratos did his homework and pieced together a good chunk of the game's lore from the demo and all of the promotional materials. EVE's looks and outfits have a reason for looking the way they look, she is essentially a love doll repurposed as a cyborg soldier.

    • @azazel166
      @azazel166 5 місяців тому +5

      Nier but without human experimentation.

  • @SebastianSeanCrow
    @SebastianSeanCrow 5 місяців тому +22

    24:40 when it comes to sex and sexuality in media, when it IS censored it’s typically the right wing doing it, it’s conservative and fundamentalist religious groups, etc

  • @brendantuthill6491
    @brendantuthill6491 4 місяці тому +18

    I think that the people talking about "safe" sexy are in denial that they are a part of society. Society has to be the people who disagree with them, it cannot be them

  • @CatHasOpinions734
    @CatHasOpinions734 3 місяці тому +11

    Wait, they think the characters in Baldur's Gate 3 aren't sexy? Do... do they have eyes? Did their screens glitch out when they met Shadowheart and they somehow failed to recruit her?
    Like, I get that, while PLENTY of straight men are into Karlach and Lae'zel, Karlach's a little more buff than the bodies we usually consider conventionally attractive, and personally, I do get being weirded out by Lae'zel's lack of nose. But SHADOWHEART?
    And don't even get me started on Minthara, there are plenty of people who planned on being a hero who participated in the deaths of lots of innocent tieflings JUST to get to romance Minthara.

    • @henryfleischer404
      @henryfleischer404 Місяць тому

      IDK, about 60% of what I find sexy about a character is their clothes, and I don't like the fashion I've seen in BG3.

  • @rbfloat
    @rbfloat 5 місяців тому +23

    It’s so bizarre that people are acting like female video game characters have never been sexy. Look at Ivy from the Soul Calibur. She’s constantly in skimpy outfits. People don’t care if you want to play a game with a character that is made to be hot at all but a lot of weird, right-wingers think there is some war against sexiness.
    No? I think people just want variety in female designs and characters. Not all games have to feature extremely sexy women in skimpy outfits and not all games have to be sexless. Why can’t people understand that?

  • @azazel166
    @azazel166 5 місяців тому +72

    As someone who has a PS5 and played the demo, I am bummered that it is more like Sekiro and less like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta and Nier.
    Maybe it's just my fatigue with all the souslikes talking.
    There is no denying that From Software earned every bit of praise as a phenomenal developer.
    However, I wish other developers would follow other aspects that make From Software what it is(i.e. world building), instead of just grabbing the souls formula and putting it into their games.
    I want more games where the player is in control, instead of being made of sand and ready to be crushed by even the slightest misstep.

    • @turnburner2204
      @turnburner2204 5 місяців тому +6

      I feel that. Especially how flashy and outlandish this game looks.

    • @OnyxSkiesXIX
      @OnyxSkiesXIX 5 місяців тому +3

      And the problem with trying to copy From is that most developers just aren’t that good.

    • @DrZuluGaming
      @DrZuluGaming 5 місяців тому +1

      I agree. I mean, it's a good game but the Souls-style gameplay felt a detriment to the flashier combat that it wanted to go for.
      I may be wrong, it's just a demo but it felt like one of those games I'll wait unti it goes to sale/free to Playstation Plus before I get to a playthrough.

    • @azazel166
      @azazel166 5 місяців тому +8

      @@OnyxSkiesXIX Nioh and Lies of P were good, but that's just it, not every game has to follow in the footsteps of the Souls formula.

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 5 місяців тому +1

      You are in control. You probably just aren’t very good.

  • @oshkeet
    @oshkeet 5 місяців тому +31

    I sorta have a ear for genuine critique right up until the point some gamer boils down to thinking developers wanna stomp "attractive female characters" for... some reason, and then you realize its complete obsession with a character not given them a boner. Then someone inevitably posts the characters they dislike for being "ugly" and they're just normal ass looking people and you realize... yeah these are not dudes who go outside much.

  • @ZILtoid1991
    @ZILtoid1991 5 місяців тому +54

    That whole "safe horny" discourse reminded me of secondary school locker room talks, where they thought I was a weirdo for thinking blondes are overrated.
    Also you could make a video on how criticism of sexual objectification often done from a very conservative perspective, and how it often worded in sexist ways. I've seen a lot of women (some of whom were pretty progressive) who felt they were attacked by those very same criticisms.

    • @SkorpionSSs
      @SkorpionSSs 5 місяців тому +2

      "who felt"... see that's the problem... you'll have feelings and then hold others responsible for your feelings because you read shit that isn't said into words. your feelings your problems, not everyone else's.

    • @lisprn-tt1tu
      @lisprn-tt1tu 5 місяців тому +2

      Yes, when discussing sexual matters some progressives sound like they can easily convert to religious conservative.

    • @matthewgagnon9426
      @matthewgagnon9426 5 місяців тому +4

      @@SkorpionSSs That's you. You're projecting.

    • @Pan-demic
      @Pan-demic 5 місяців тому +6

      @@lisprn-tt1tuI think a context based approach regarding the sexualization of people in general is much more helpful - after all, one of the core fundamental reasoning against objectification is violation of choice

  • @lulcy95
    @lulcy95 5 місяців тому +54

    Eve design may have been based on a scanned real life model but the final product has clear alterations and changes that don't quite reflect the real person that was based on.

    • @KalicoKal
      @KalicoKal 5 місяців тому +12

      its literally only the models bust they left unchanged...it literally would have been cheaper to pay 1 artist to design eve and another to make the model they didnt need several dozen high quality cameras to scan a model in if they wanted to make a thick character

    • @zacharylewis6903
      @zacharylewis6903 5 місяців тому +4

      They definitely touched up her body. Shin Jae-eun provided the "base" for Eve's body. Her face was created in house by Shift Up's artists. Her design and proportions overall looks like Kim Hyung Tae's past work.

  • @6311Lucas
    @6311Lucas 3 місяці тому +5

    Agreed with everything, however, one important thing to mention is that money IS politics, at least in the capitalist world. When he says "it's not the left it's not the right" and talks about greed and capitalism, well, capitalism = the right, it breeds greed. What is capitalism? The political and economical system designed to pursue profit, Capital, money at all costs, not the benefit of gamers or the human race for that matter. The left is precisely against this view, however in the USA the concept of left has really shifted from the class struggle to woke politics (which, may I remind, is all also in benefit of capital, since it's diverging from the nature of the left, and if enough people rebel against the logic of profit by the exploitation of the working class it will fall). It is beneficial for the capitalist system that the left's ideology is reduced to "unimportant matters" such as what he is describing in the video. Every new tech, every "good action" the billionaires make, every new game, every trend, every product that is manufactured, every job, every program, every law, everything, all for profit. Always. And where does that profit comes from? The work that you do, of course. Is your work rightfully converted into money? Well, if there's profit (especially for someone other than you), then no. The profit is the surplus of work you've done that goes to someone else's pocket. That's what capitalism wants, exploit the market and turn everything into a commodity that can be sold at the highest price. With games it's no different. They pump out this games that are dipping in quality because they realised they can cut costs, put out a just decent game barely on the line so we don't stop buying them and profit a ton. I'm a firm believer that the left in the USA (being the world's capitalist beacon that it is) has been reduced to the point both parties are rightwing, one is just more concerned with the illusion of left the "woke" stuff provides. Don't define left or right by moral individual values, but by the relations between work and society. Organisation is the key, guys. Meanwhile let's all buy the new 300 dollar assassin's creed game and see if the black character is supposed to be a samurai or not I guess...

  • @apieceofbitsandpieces342
    @apieceofbitsandpieces342 5 місяців тому +50

    Another thing concerning Stellar Blade is its role in trying to kickstart a “GamerGate 2.” A lot of the tweets I’ve seen talking about it usually have either a GamerGate hashtag or are by accounts that follow known right or right-leaning figures that have been trying to make “GamerGate 2” a thing.
    The problem that a lot of the people trying to manufacture another GamerGate is that it doesn’t seem like they have a real idea or strong motive behind them or a target. They’ve gone from harassing the models of Spider-Man 2, to harassing a story consultant company for being “woke”, to harassing a group of African American women games, to supporting this game to “own the libs.”

    • @AshParth560
      @AshParth560 5 місяців тому +11

      Like an endless vicious cycle that sometimes the internet is more of a mistake as the days go by.
      Hell, games have always been fun, but fandoms certainly not fun lately like corruption within the system.

    • @zacharybosley1935
      @zacharybosley1935 5 місяців тому +2

      Yeah...

    • @animenexus6
      @animenexus6 5 місяців тому

      No ones trying to start GG 2 over Stellar Blade

    • @zacharybosley1935
      @zacharybosley1935 5 місяців тому +17

      @animenexus6 GG1 wasn't made over Anita Specifically, you'll recall. It was a combination of factors then, just as there are a number of alchemists trying to combine factors now.

    • @KalicoKal
      @KalicoKal 5 місяців тому

      @@animenexus6 type stellar blade into your search bar and tell me how many accounts that arent covering gameplay start yelling about THE MESSAGE, dei nonsense and gamers being oppressed because omg black people yes the first one was a dig at critical drinker, actually critical drinker, the yellow flash, endymon youll notice a pattern where half them dont play games they just grift and yell about wokeness and then the "gaming channels" dont make gaming videos unless its the b roll for there rant about why video games shouldnt be progressive heres like 4 accounts to show you the stupid shit there doing they change topics every weak to stir up as many people as possible right now there talking about warhammer having fem stodes

  • @russianbot8576
    @russianbot8576 4 місяці тому +12

    all this shit is just the same crap as during gamergate. this game is only 'brave' because some gamers want to be perpetually victimised and under attack tbqh.

  • @SashaS-s2z
    @SashaS-s2z 4 місяці тому +29

    Personally, I dislike Stellar Blade's character design because it creeps me out. The combination of hyperrealistic textures (all that glistening) with exagerrated proportions falls right into the uncanny valley for me.

    • @Channel-23s
      @Channel-23s 3 місяці тому +3

      Interesting take because imho a “shiny” character modeled by a real person doesn’t quite look inhuman or monstrous to me,but hey I guess it’s subjective for people I’m more of a traditional scary/uncanny type, I wouldn’t say I dislike the character design as then I’d have to say the same with Beyonetta or 2B to each there own.

  • @BondforgedSky
    @BondforgedSky 5 місяців тому +41

    Stellar Blade has been one of my most anticipated games for years. The gameplay, concept, and visuals look very appealing to me. I played the demo, and was not disappointed. It just made me want to buy the game even more. And I really love Eve's design, along with her various outfits. And the weird thing is, I'm a gay person. I really like waifus, but in the same way gays like divas. This might sound weird, but I really enjoy the waifu aesthetic, because it's both empowerment and escapism for me as a gay masc person. And I know I'm not alone in that. Both queer people and even straight women ( especially women from the countries these types of games are made in ) love these types of characters not because we're attracted to them, but because we wanna be like them. Despite the fact that we aren't always the target demo for these characters. It's why I have a strong interest in this kind of media ( including several gachas, like Shift Up's Nikke ( which i still haven't played ). Listen, games are expensive, and the gachas I play are genuinely really good and ftp friendly ). And this type of media is of course good not because of the attractive designs, the designs are just the cherry one top of an delicious sundae. So it really sucks when I see entitled misogynists view this topic as a black and white thing, and treat waifus as the one thing that makes a game good, rather than acknowledging the nuances of who likes those characters and why, and that attractive characters don't always sale games/make a game good. It's also worth acknowledging the people who are attractive to waifus, but aren't being weird about it. They're just trying to enjoy a character's design without wanting to get wrapped up in a culture war. Sorry if this came off as very rambling. I'm just really passionate about this topic.

    • @chaserseven2886
      @chaserseven2886 5 місяців тому +1

      your not a gamer for playing gatcha (unless your f2p)

    • @KalicoKal
      @KalicoKal 5 місяців тому +2

      @@chaserseven2886 nah whales are gamers too

  • @Secretsquirrel724
    @Secretsquirrel724 5 місяців тому +6

    Every time you say Masamune Shirow's name, he gets a free deluxe ramen bowl from the Japanese government.

  • @HellyeahRook
    @HellyeahRook 5 місяців тому +13

    A lot of people say "safe sexy" they mean loli stuff........

  • @shadowlance8212
    @shadowlance8212 5 місяців тому +19

    This is great video but there's a point you missed about the sony senran kagura point. There was a time when sony was censoring japanese ecchi games senrab kagura was just one of them. It was so prevalent it was getting recommended people buy the switch or pc version of visual novels or games with an anime/manga style to them because at the time they had the uncensored releases in both the localized and original japanese versions. So eventually developers who enjoyed making those games eventually pivoted to either exclusively switch or exclusively PC and stopped releasing games on the ps4/ps5. This effected sony's ultimate bottom line that they started to be lax with the restrictions and eventually do away with them entirely

    • @cloudmv15
      @cloudmv15 5 місяців тому

      Have Sony ever started that they don’t enforce theirs restrictions anymore?

    • @shadowlance8212
      @shadowlance8212 5 місяців тому +8

      @@cloudmv15 as far as I can tell there haven't been any restrictions on games that come out on multiple platforms anymore. Every game is now the same no matter the platform. Whether it's still with exclusives that's a different story but considering final fantasy and Stellar blade they likely quietly got rid of them

  • @KazeShikamaru
    @KazeShikamaru 5 місяців тому +16

    The anti-woke article is so poorly written. Also bro Forbidden Hex Sex came out last year. It's legit a porn game.

    • @xiuhcoatl4830
      @xiuhcoatl4830 5 місяців тому +1

      Plenty of porn games came out last year, still, none of them is mainstream and almost never are commented by games journos... if they did it, they'd streisan'd them to massive success. You're ignoring the point, this is literally the "just go watch porn" argument.

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 5 місяців тому

      How many triple A games like Stellar Blade came out last year? Why is it so hard to not be disingenuous?

    • @KazeShikamaru
      @KazeShikamaru 4 місяці тому +3

      @@ExpertContrarian How many have we gotten in general? Even back in the 2000s you weren't getting high budget games like a Stellar Blade. I just found the article to be poorly written. I got no issue with the game besides Eve not being the best character.

    • @KazeShikamaru
      @KazeShikamaru 4 місяці тому +1

      @@xiuhcoatl4830 And it isn't their job to cover that. Do you need media attention to get validation? Lots of those games get good buzz from word and mouth. I mentioned that game because it's a quality game made by a team that cares.
      Go play it instead of arguing on social media.

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 4 місяці тому

      @@KazeShikamaruhow many? Even less than before. The fact that your example means anything in this context yet you want to criticize the article 😂😂😂

  • @Netherfly
    @Netherfly 5 днів тому +1

    "If you've been online recently, you've heard people talk about Stellar Blade." I mean... now that you mention it, I haven't seen anyone mention Stellar Blade in, oh, the last 4-and-a-half months or so. Totally forgot that game even existed.

  • @lapis3965
    @lapis3965 5 місяців тому +13

    Haven't watched the whole video yet, but a HUGE reason why Stellar Blade is selling well is that many people believe that if the game sells well it will show other console devs that there is STILL a market for this ( sexy women in action games). And the idea in supporting this game is that other devs will start making more games like this again, since sexy women in games ( primarily in the west and in some cases in the East have been in a decline). That's the beauty of capitalism ( free markets) is that they don't lie, and the truth is that the numbers based on pre orders alone is INSANE , with stellar blade topping MULTIPLE charts. And the game is already predicted by an analysts to sell over a million units, which if true, is impressive for a brand NEW IP in 2024 , especially considering how expensive video games are to make now. And MANY people were dead set in supporting this game BEFORE the demo came out. So you can't just chuck it up to gameplay of the game either. Since while It helped the game,it isn't the MAIN selling point, just look at the discourse on twitter and youtube for further proof.
    Additionally, this idea that Stellar blade is only going to appeal to straight men as I read in an article is stupid, as I've seen PLENTY of women talking about how they like Eve's design, whether it's straight women saying how fashionable her outfit is. Or lesbian women talking about how hot she is. And I'm already seen females cosplay the character for fun. Yes, there will be groups of people who don't like the sexy portrayal of the character ( whether that be feminists on the left) . BUT SO WHAT? The reality is NOT EVERY GAME HAS TO APPEAL TO EVERYONE. Heck, there are TONS of works that I like in anime and gaming that is not mainstream. And I'm cool with that. WHY? BECAUSE I ENJOYED it, and who cares if the vast majority didn't, my only concerns is if the work is profitable enough to get a sequel. Not whether billions of people look at a character of a movie or an anime in the same way as I do. If you need something to be mainstream to feel confident about a product you like. Then you are someone that needs to be validated by others. Which is pathetic IMO and definitely not healthy. Just thought I share my thoughts on this controversy, even though it REALLY SHOULDN'T be one in the first place.

    • @yeolemillinial8295
      @yeolemillinial8295 5 місяців тому

      Really it boils down to one thing and one thing alone, and that is it did not bend the knee to this reimagine Ng of who the consumer is, which it is not. Also, and more importantly, it protected the integrity of the creators original vision, something we have very little of anymore.

    • @sugarzblossom8168
      @sugarzblossom8168 4 місяці тому +4

      What I have noticed is that game only count if they sexualise or make only female characters super sexy.
      Hades and Buldur's Gate 3 don't count because both genders are sexy but not overly sexualised. I feel like if Stella blade made a fanservicey male characters as well as the female ones people who strongly support this game wouldn't.

  • @lisprn-tt1tu
    @lisprn-tt1tu 5 місяців тому +15

    All I can say about Stellar Blade at this point is that WHEN NO ONE HAS YET TO PLAY THE FULL GAME, NO ONE CAN JUDGE IF THE MAIN CHARACTER IS EMPTY EYE-CANDY DOLL OR NOT.

  • @moustik31
    @moustik31 4 місяці тому +17

    Arguing that "real women" look like old games "waifus" is WILD and insulting.

  • @isaiahkayode6526
    @isaiahkayode6526 4 місяці тому +22

    And what makes it so ironic is that there are a lot of woke things in stellar blade that the echo chamber incels will never see because they’re too dumbfounded like Lilly one of the main characters being a Lesbian and a Greek Trans statues in added to the game as well.

    • @moustik31
      @moustik31 4 місяці тому +3

      Ikr? Similarly, I saw cons. audiences rejoice, that there were no Black characters in Shogun and therefore, they are hailing the show as a win for their side. And as someone, who watched the og show I cackled: "wokeness" won big time lmao!

    • @melodi_bunniez
      @melodi_bunniez 4 місяці тому +1

      Wait Lily is canonically lesbian?
      Holy crap... Considering all these chuds are also homophobic, we should ship her with Eve to piss them off even more! I think "LilEve" sounds like a good ship name, plus I played the game and they have more chemistry with each other than they ever did with Adam

    • @angellozano1938
      @angellozano1938 Місяць тому

      ​@@moustik31 you could have a character read the communist manifesto word-for-word and right wingers will fall in love with the work if you keep the cast straight and white

  • @ctgooni
    @ctgooni 4 місяці тому +19

    Gooners being manipulated by corporations to promote their lewd games is so unsurprising.

  • @akiradkcn
    @akiradkcn 3 місяці тому +3

    Just wanted to comment that recently,
    Princess Maker 2 got a new released announced, and its controversial comtents will be uncensored on all plataforms EXCEPT Playstation
    And that isn't the first time such thing happens either, SB was definetively censored by Sony but the game director can't say that in public without risking losing his job

  • @dickydoodles2423
    @dickydoodles2423 5 місяців тому +24

    Eve looks just as bland as all other korean made videogame characters... I extend the invitation for anyone to name me one singular iconic videogame character that originated from a korean game.
    There is no problem with sexy characters, we had Mai from King of Fighters, Cammy, Ada Wong, Tifa, Samus, Bayonetta, 2B, and could list hundreds more for decades... The thing about those characters is that their visual designs, be how they dress, move, and emote, expressed what kind of character they were. Eve on the other hand looks like a lifeless doll with no agency of her own who exists solely to be looked at... This kind of look gets a pass with characters like 2B, since she's a robot... But Eve is not, and being hot isnt a personality trait, cause if it was, Dead or Alive characters would be the most compelling and expertly designed female characters in the history of the industry, and Eve would fit in perfectly along with them. I mean it's even a trope that hot girls are shallow, and Stellar Blade's Eve might be an amazing character, but nothing about the marketing, to the demo suggests that's remotely the case, she's just meat...
    And here is the thing, it is fine if she's just meat or one dimensional, look at Mario or Link, and their games are still phenomenal, but people pretend she's more than that, because others shame them for liking meat, and that's how they turn this nothing burger of a game, into a beacon of the culture war, while Sony laughs all the way to the bank, once more making money out of ideological division. Everyone's getting played here.

  • @Zenith121691
    @Zenith121691 4 місяці тому +4

    To a thirsty man in a content drought frequently burned by a promise of ESG DEI oasis, A pouch of water becomes a treasure.

  • @absoul112
    @absoul112 5 місяців тому +4

    Why'd you have to remind me we're not getting another Darkstalkers game, and Capcom's dumb reasoning for it as well?
    Edit: so from what I've seen, Eve's model was based off of a real person, but her wasn't used. Personally, I prefer Shin Jae-eun's (the model Eve was based on) face to Eve.

  • @pingozingo
    @pingozingo 5 місяців тому +30

    "this is all an echo chamber argument" was so real
    this is all so terminally online lol

  • @zacharybosley1935
    @zacharybosley1935 5 місяців тому +16

    25:14 is the crux of this video methinks. The whole video is a banger, but the manufactured outrage discussion needs to he had more.

  • @littlegiantrobo6523
    @littlegiantrobo6523 5 місяців тому +11

    It's completely contextual, but women that like women do have problems with sexualized protagonists, particularly if that protagonist is the playable character and particularly if that character is a silent protagonists. The idea being that the player is supposed to identify with the protagonists and become immersed as the protagonist. In these cases, women are no longer only looking at the fan service, they are made to become the fan service, and they very much do not like or appreciate that.

  • @JamesMathurin
    @JamesMathurin 5 місяців тому +7

    Just to point out, it was Mass Effect Andromeda you showed the clip from, not Mass Effect 3.
    Good video, though.

    • @agramuglia
      @agramuglia  5 місяців тому +8

      Dumb error on my part there, haha! Thanks for pointing it out.

  • @FitzyCify
    @FitzyCify 5 місяців тому +12

    For the longest time, I honestly didn't even think this was a real game. The main character looks AI-generated. The generically "attractive" anime-esque figure and face, the overly shiny, painted-on look of her bodysuit, you know what I mean? It's too pristine to be sexy.

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 5 місяців тому +1

      Lmao I always crack up seeing this take. If they don’t look like Abby from the TLOU it’s a problem 😂

    • @FitzyCify
      @FitzyCify 5 місяців тому +9

      ​@@ExpertContrarian Projecting a little hard there, buddy; Abby's deliberately unattractive design has no bearing on my disinterest in Eve's bland, generic sex appeal.

  • @SebastianSeanCrow
    @SebastianSeanCrow 5 місяців тому +6

    3:38 I remember hearing they spent the most time on her backside. The view of her behind. In terms of effort. And to me that’s just…. SAD. I would have spent time in her as a whole, on all of the characters as a whole.

  • @ThePolishCan
    @ThePolishCan 5 місяців тому +11

    It was a good idea to start the video in a laid-back tone. You were understating the severity of the shitstorm and kept me doubting in you but at
    18:16 this is where you finally convinced me. you're right, the game itself was incidental, only a cudgel, to the latest brewing iteration of the culture war. this needed to be said.
    I wouldn't say "it's not politics, it's capitalism" though. I got the message, but economics are more entangled with worldview shenanigans than you implied. At least it's more apparent than in the "playing it safe" excuse devs give. The problem is not cronyism, neither is the Friedman doctrine.

  • @madnessarcade7447
    @madnessarcade7447 Місяць тому +2

    29:38 The real model was not faithfully depicted from what I know they did essentially the video game version of photoshopping someone’s picture or used a filter to make her unrecognizable

  • @judgebetterhalf
    @judgebetterhalf 5 місяців тому +27

    Can the “culture war” go away

    • @milliondoller06
      @milliondoller06 5 місяців тому +5

      Tell game journos stop bitching over stellar blade

    • @UziOmega
      @UziOmega 5 місяців тому +2

      Tell that harp y to respect asian or "white adjacent" as they like to call them people first and write more gaming guides instead

    • @judgebetterhalf
      @judgebetterhalf 5 місяців тому

      @@milliondoller06 k

    • @nottius1026
      @nottius1026 5 місяців тому +4

      My guess is if the games journos shut the f up, it'll go away instantly

    • @UziOmega
      @UziOmega 5 місяців тому

      @@nottius1026 They can't, their egos won't let them.

  • @periapsis413
    @periapsis413 3 місяці тому +3

    I thought it was funny that you point out that sexualized characters are "nothing new" in video games and that its a dumb argument, but didn't call out the stellar blade director when you directly quoted how he thinks it's "brave" to do this nowadays

  • @moustik31
    @moustik31 4 місяці тому +8

    Ik Gamers (TM) like to revise history but the issue has never been the "suppression" of conventionally attractive characters but to engage meaningfully with them. The issue is that 1. they were the only representation for female gamers AND 2. they werent treated as much as respect as their male counterparts.
    Censorship is their [gamers tm] way to engage with art, as shown during both "gamergate" harassment campaigns. They are the ones pushing for the absence of "politics" (and the "suppression" of regular gamers) in a genre, they feel entitled to act as "proprietors" of. Exhausting little pos.
    🙄🙄🙄

  • @TheNightmareRider
    @TheNightmareRider 5 місяців тому +33

    I disagree on the point of Anita Sarkeesian. What she was doing was looking at the bigger picture of tropes, and how they tend to treat women as sex objects first rather than characters. She taught me that the problem isn't sexuality at all. It's that women in video games, for a long time, felt like they were MANDATED to have T&A regardless of the context.
    This is why reactionaries are using A.I to make female characters more like porn models. They want to be able to objectify women and are like toddlers refusing to share their toys.

    • @swtormadness
      @swtormadness 5 місяців тому +12

      You are not alone in this. I never got an impression that Anita wanted to censor internet and hated sex workers, or hated female sexuality.

    • @KalicoKal
      @KalicoKal 5 місяців тому +4

      and those same dudes "defending" eve and "beautiful" game characters dont see the sexism in complaining about 10 games with normal levels of attractive female characters and trying to start a culture war over it just because they arent some hyper sexual doll they can slide up and down. the way there treating the fallout shows actress might as well be proof they are exactly who that ign article was talking about that dont give a crap about why characters like 2b or bayonetta are loved and seen as more than just hot for the sake of it too the point it bleeds into real life judging real women on a standard based on there favorite A.I waifu

    • @swtormadness
      @swtormadness 5 місяців тому +7

      @@KalicoKal I don't think Anita's point was to "start a culture war". Tropes are things in fiction that simply exist if we want it or not, and people who deal with media talk about them constantly. Highlighting their existence is not for the sake of starting a war. It's was both for academic purpose and to start conversation about women representation and quality of it in media overall. (If you see representation as a culture war then I'm sorry, but I'm queer and I need representation to literally convince people that I'm a human being worth of respect).
      Anita didn't only talk about how characters looked, but also in which roles they were allowed to be versus those they weren't allowed to be in. The damselling of female characters for the sake of the plot so the man could save them for example. Or treating female characters like thropies to be given to men for "the job well done".
      I always saw Anita's criticism as "women are put in fixed roles and allowed only certain looks", which is true. Women for the longest time were not allowed to look different than how men who made them imagined an ideal woman looks like. Diversifying this image is the goal of such critique. I don't think her idea or goal was to say that women are too obscenely clothed and all have to be covered up. But it's also true that them being skimpily clad is the norm that doesn't always reflect anything else than what men wanted. Especially if the reward at the end of the game for the assumed male player is to undress a character and see her in a sexy bikini, while for the most of the game she was wearing unisex armor and nobody even knew she was a woman.
      Female characters in video games don't have agency or desires of their own. They can't assert how they want to be clothed. It's their creator that decided what they wear and more often than not men find bullshit reasons to put all (not just a few but all of them) female characters in video games into skimpy clothes that border on the absurd (like that one character that "breathed through her skin"). From meta standpoint any explanation inside the game is an excuse "why the creator wanted the character to look this way", nothing more.
      If men who made those games saw women as people they would not make all women look like supermodels clad in metal bikinis for their own consumption, but would show us women in various types of clothing, with various types of bodies and with various types of personalities. (Not to mention it would also be betetr for male players to interact with various women, especially if most oif them are asusmed to be love interests). And would definitely not let camera ogle their bodies in a way that takes away from their individuality and makes the player forget that they're people.
      That's also why for example the author of Stardew Valley was so praised by feminist media scholars. There was an interview done with him, where he was asked how he managed to write such great female characters and he simply said that he didn't try to write women, he tried to write people. That's one of the issues male writers of medias have - they have some tereotypical idea of what woman is and how she thinks and behaves, and then write women as such, and real women are often baffled by that image. Ofc there are real women that behave this way, but there are also a lot of women who don't. Not to mention that even real woman behaving in a way that men thinks she does, has more depth than most of those female characters combined. Hence the jokes women often make about "women written by men versus women written by women".

    • @KalicoKal
      @KalicoKal 5 місяців тому

      @@swtormadness did you type this based on my comment or my channels content because im agreeing with the original comment and talking about the weirdos altering the fallout actresses body and screaming about some anti woke culture war...we are on the same page why did you make me read this. please re read my comment carefully but im going to edit my comment to make things a little more clear but for the record im opposition of the idea there's a conspiracy to uglify video games characters because diversity bad you will find me up and down this comment section with that same opinion. i started my comment with AND because i was adding on to what they were saying not disagreeing but thanks for trying to educate me if by chance i was one of those chuds

    • @lisprn-tt1tu
      @lisprn-tt1tu 5 місяців тому

      "She taught me that the problem isn't sexuality at all. It's that women in video games, for a long time, felt like they were MANDATED to have T&A regardless of the context."
      Putting 'T&A' on given female character is always regardless of the context because it is arbitrary choice(to say otherwise is itself problematic).
      So it is still the sexuality that is the problem.

  • @Insomniaaron
    @Insomniaaron 5 місяців тому +3

    To essentially answer the gameplay question as I did play the demo, think Nier Automata (and the first Nier too) hack and slash. Goes for the general aesthetic as well.

  • @ChaosAngelZero
    @ChaosAngelZero 5 місяців тому +2

    Sony ain't the publisher of the Senran Kagura games...

  • @madnessarcade7447
    @madnessarcade7447 Місяць тому +2

    25:46 Bayonetta and 2B are probably considered different because they aren’t modeled after a real person
    Idk tho

  • @reyis_here945
    @reyis_here945 3 місяці тому +1

    Removing Abby from the conversation The Last of Us 2 was "just" a bad game... so it clearly wasn't a money argument

  • @Mx.M0RI
    @Mx.M0RI 3 місяці тому +8

    Crazy that people think the woke would hate that when baldurs gate straight up lets you undress ur character, it also won game of the year

    • @virginsaint
      @virginsaint 18 днів тому

      Catering to men =\= catering to everyone. Lots of people see the later one as the ideal, even if the game is catering to a specific audience, while they see the other one as a step back.

  • @dorianleventon3841
    @dorianleventon3841 3 місяці тому +1

    thats not Mass Effect 3, thats Andromeda

  • @sonicsaiyan07
    @sonicsaiyan07 5 місяців тому +6

    About the respinse you received when asking about the gameplay, there's some context to understand. Many peoole trashing the game have been saying ALL they've been seeing is people parading Eve's figure and no gameplay at all. Though there may have been a hint of truth, the counterpoint was, of course there's a demo to try and even if you don't/can't play it yourself said demo has many gameplay videos on UA-cam that were easy enough to search (Tl;dr, if you wanna see the game its easy enough to do just that) and everyone was getting kinda sick of having to point that out.

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 5 місяців тому +3

      He was very obviously trying to bait

    • @Duran13XIII
      @Duran13XIII 5 місяців тому +2

      @@ExpertContrarian Bait and rage engagement is all little Anthony has.

    • @isaiahkayode6526
      @isaiahkayode6526 4 місяці тому +1

      @@Duran13XIII bait and rage? Which is funny since it’s always from your side your projection is way on the head you clown.

    • @sugarzblossom8168
      @sugarzblossom8168 4 місяці тому +2

      I mean a lot of people don't focus on the gameplay

  • @GumbaMasta
    @GumbaMasta 5 місяців тому +12

    I still hold onto that the future will redeem Forespoken

    • @agramuglia
      @agramuglia  5 місяців тому +6

      I personally want every game to find its audience, but I'd be lying if I said Forespoken was something that I personally enjoyed.

    • @AshParth560
      @AshParth560 5 місяців тому +2

      I feel ya, still got my copy and no regrets for enjoying it.
      (Of course, still no PS5 but one day, will have my own fun as I've watched a couple of playthroughs on UA-cam. 😎)

  • @sungjin008
    @sungjin008 5 місяців тому +9

    I hate to say it, but the South Korea gaming industry is not helping Ukraine. Some companies still operate Russia servers, Stellar Blade developer Shift Up erased Soline's hairpin, which is reminiscent of the Ukraine flag. I am embarrassed as a Korean.

  • @lucidity1
    @lucidity1 3 місяці тому +2

    Wait, they say "safe" sexy is "weird" and niche stuff, and "unsafe" sexy is vanilla and mainstream?
    Did you ask these people if they also believe that "War is Peace", "Freedom is Slavery" and especially if "Ignorance is Strength"?
    Because this type of reversal reminds me of something...

  • @GrandArchPriestOfTheAlgorithm
    @GrandArchPriestOfTheAlgorithm 5 місяців тому +5

    Do we really have to refight a battle from a decade ago?

  • @ZaiDrizzleDrop
    @ZaiDrizzleDrop 4 місяці тому +5

    I really appreciate you not beating around the bush and just saying it. CAPITALSIM.
    A lot of the comments I think are just ignoring this and focusing on smaller issues
    All of these problems are rooted in Capitalism, and it will continue as long as Capitalism exists.
    All of this talk of right vs left is just one big distraction, it distracts you from the CAPITALISTS taking advantage of artists and trying to get your money, while they scheme for more ways to get more of it, every single cent. While your worried about people getting mad over a character's butt, they are taking advantage of artists and YOU.
    Its all a distraction man.

  • @madnessarcade7447
    @madnessarcade7447 Місяць тому +1

    Bayonetta 3’s controversy didn’t help sales

  • @almightyarsenal3366
    @almightyarsenal3366 4 місяці тому +2

    Verbatim, the first thing I thought when I saw the initial trailer for Stellar Blade was; “Oh it’s just Bayonetta with a bland character and a different combat system” and never gave it a second thought. Considering the trash fire that has been in its fandom of “revolutionary character design & direction” and its lukewarm arrival of just being an OK game, I’m glad I skipped out on it.

  • @roknininks7363
    @roknininks7363 5 місяців тому +8

    Before the comments get as wild as expected, just want to say I enjoy your vids, and at just halfway through this one at the moment, pretty much agree with the gist of it. SB has been weird lightning rod for something that's just kinda...there. The game isn't making some wild point, even in its inherent visual design.

    • @agramuglia
      @agramuglia  5 місяців тому +3

      Yeah, I am a little worried about how all the comments have been fairly positive at this point. It's like I'm waiting for the inevitable storm.

  • @snowsthetics2816
    @snowsthetics2816 26 днів тому +1

    10/10 for 37:00

  • @OK2BeFat
    @OK2BeFat 4 місяці тому +1

    Heck yeah Space Dandy clip!! 😄

  • @mechanicalmonk2020
    @mechanicalmonk2020 5 місяців тому +3

    - I remember watching a demo playthrough of Stellar Blade and the moment you see a character for the first time I busted out laughing. Giant boobs just flopping around with a bored / sleepy looking face above. Reminded me of "why is her boob bigger than her head" from Xenoblade 2.
    - The issue with these characters isn't that they're designed to be sexy/titilating. It's that they don't dress themselves (i.e. there's no reason to believe that these characters would choose to look like this). This is in contrast to someone like Bayonetta that absolutely does dress herself.
    - Also Eve is based on a real woman in that she kind of looks like her and she was used for motion capture. That woman does not have the same proportions and general air brushed looks.
    - Saying "games should be fun" is extremely reductive.
    - This video went off the rails around the 60% mark...

    • @AT-rp8zy
      @AT-rp8zy 5 місяців тому +2

      Dude it's a videogame clam down.

  • @tionodese8110
    @tionodese8110 4 місяці тому +2

    The side that doesn't like game journalists are reacting to what they see as a threat to the chances of games they like being produced.
    They think the game journalists will convince the corporations to make less sexy games I guess.

  • @lapis3965
    @lapis3965 5 місяців тому +6

    Watched more of your video, and while you make some fair points there are two points that I disagree with you on :
    1) You make a claim around the six minute mark that sexy women hasn't changed much over the years, when that isn't true. Since sexy women and fan service in gaming in general has been on the decline since Sony move the gaming HQ over to California back around 2016. Since, then, Sony California ( which is arguably the most left wing state next to New York) has demanded game developers town down sexy female characters, with the creator of famous sexy series "Senran Kagura " talking about his frustrations of NOT being allowed to express his artistic visions. To be clear, XSEED, which is the the name of the developer company is a third party developer, so they DIDN'T NEED to rely on Sony funding to get a game made, so that wasn't the issue on why Sony told them to stop with the excessive fan service, it was just a difference in beliefs in what should be allowed in games. That said, Sony California isn't the only problem either, since companies have embraced programs like ESG ( which is a program that MANY left wing companies have praised), which incentivizes developers to include more left wining beliefs in games, such as DEI, LGBT, etc. And heavily sexualized women is generally frowned upon. It's why in recent years Japanese developers that embraced ESG like Capcom have toned down the fans ervice in their games like SF6( Juri's default character design being toned down to what she originally had in 4) and Re3 remake( Jill's character design toned down to what she had in OG 3) and RE4 remake ( where a lot of what some people considered "sexists and "misogynistic" remarks" Leon made to women were removed from the original). Yes, you could argue that there is a little bit of fan service in certain areas of these games, but there is no denying that there is a collective effort to tone it down. And If you combine these two things. It's no wonder that we've seen less of sexy women in gaming in recent years. And yes, many western games HAVE made women look less traditionally beautiful. Just look at Mary Jane in Spider man 2 ( who looks like a transgender man). And That's fine if your ok with it, but it is undeniably happening.
    2) There's been plenty of people complaining about Stellar Blade based on the female character on the opposite side of the reactionaries. The most obvious one being the infamous IGN article where the writer makes the outright disrespectful claim about the devs "never seen a living woman" And I'm glad your willing to acknowledge it in your video. And there's several other articles that are in that mindset as well. And that's not even mentioning the countless tweets mocking people who like Eve's design on twitter.
    Where I do agree with you is that a Companies main goal is to make money, and will follow any trend to make it. Which is why I and MANY other gamers ( both male AND female) are supporting Stellar Blade to show developers that there is STILL a market for this (sexy women in action games). And currently the game's selling great now so we've succeeded in our mission.

  • @powerrangerfan121
    @powerrangerfan121 Місяць тому

    Dossapointing that they dont have the confidance or shamelessness to say "woke sexy" and settle for the impenetrable nonsense euphamism of "safe sexy"i know lame-o's like this IRL its frustrating how they actuvly refuse to intercat with the world outside the parameters of thier scitzo crusade.

  • @ericmixon4202
    @ericmixon4202 5 місяців тому +1

    O k i'm gonna help you with the dark stalker thing. It wasn't steam, it was the pSp

  • @raphaelmarquez9650
    @raphaelmarquez9650 5 місяців тому +10

    Anita's puritan viewpoints has really poisoned any chances for gamers to join any left-leaning groups, because even leftists dislike Anita for said puritan viewpoints, so now they think all leftist groups are like her. But there have been times where I wonder she had a point whenever I see gamers bragging about wanting a game if it has any women that appeals to their kink. For example, foot lovers only interested in a game if it contains any female characters who are barefoot, be it playable or as an NPC.

    • @KalicoKal
      @KalicoKal 5 місяців тому

      dont give them too much credit theyed rather believe someone that openly and is actively calling gaming a waste of time just cause they said games and movies are going woke

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 5 місяців тому

      All leftists groups are like her. It always turns into policing others and being misandrist

    • @azazel166
      @azazel166 5 місяців тому +1

      Anita wouldn't even be that notorious had people not given her any attention.

  • @isaiahkayode6526
    @isaiahkayode6526 5 місяців тому +7

    Just look at how these clowns turn on Helldivers 2.

  • @JessicaMorgani
    @JessicaMorgani 3 місяці тому

    It's a discusion between centrists who think they are leftists and centrists who think they are right wing.

    • @jpgextinction
      @jpgextinction Місяць тому

      All being narrated by a centrist that's convinced he's not centrist

  • @bunnybreaker
    @bunnybreaker 5 місяців тому +6

    Nice video. I'll be checking out more from you now (this was my first).
    I agree that this controversy is total BS. The game looks fun, but it's not breaking any new ground. I'll pick it up eventually when it comes out on PC with a discount.
    For the record, I'm a woke leftist game dev, a trans woman, I like women, and some of my favourite games are Bayonetta, NieR: Automata, Soul Calibur, P.N.03, and Dead or Alive. That said, I enjoy and appreciate more diverse characters in media and there's no reason we shouldn't have even more.

    • @KalicoKal
      @KalicoKal 5 місяців тому +1

      soul calibur is so good im mad i didnt get soul calibur 6 till last week but even with few players the games awesome

    • @bunnybreaker
      @bunnybreaker 5 місяців тому +1

      @@KalicoKal Agreed. It's not a fighting game I take "seriously", but it's so much fun to play casually with friends. And though they really messed up the customisation mode (UI, bad options, loading times, etc.), it's still nice to be able to make cool custom digital dolls/action figures/cosplayers.

    • @KalicoKal
      @KalicoKal 5 місяців тому +1

      @@bunnybreaker no fr the customization is the best part where else can i fight a skeleton man, bruce lee, and somebodies waifu with same fighting style lol

    • @bunnybreaker
      @bunnybreaker 5 місяців тому

      @@KalicoKal IKR! You're making me want to download it again. Gotta see how my medieval Gambit, Ironman, and assorted waifus are doing 😁

  • @chaserseven2886
    @chaserseven2886 5 місяців тому +6

    senran kagura is my favorite echii series

  • @Thagomizer
    @Thagomizer 4 місяці тому +2

    Lara Croft was never in Playboy magazine, but one model who portrayed her at conventions, Nell McAndrew, was. Eidos responded by firing her and taking legal action against Playboy for putting the Tomb Raider logo on the cover of their magazine, since they didn't want Lara Croft to be associated with Playboy.

  • @chaserseven2886
    @chaserseven2886 5 місяців тому +7

    can we get good games?

  • @renaigh
    @renaigh 4 місяці тому +1

    I like waffles

  • @KazeShikamaru
    @KazeShikamaru 5 місяців тому

    The Discord for the game has to crack down on idiots like this.

  • @heldenflair3107
    @heldenflair3107 5 місяців тому +7

    Kinda skipped over the whole internal sony policy barring fanservicey games and citing #metoo for the whole removal of it. Even the devs backed it up

    • @ExpertContrarian
      @ExpertContrarian 5 місяців тому +1

      This is an ideologically driven video. Of course they’re not going bring up the relevant points as to why this discussion is happening

  • @kelwdavicuddui5677
    @kelwdavicuddui5677 2 місяці тому +1

    I can respect your views but I do have to disagree on some stuff, some of your takes come off as naïve and I don't mean that as an insult.
    Game Journo Pros was a thing that happened. Conspiracies do in fact happen even in the gaming space. Conspiracies happen for many reasons like drugs, money, sex, or even just spite.
    In anime for instance we've seen the coordinated attacks against Vic in an effort get him removed from the industry.
    Saying it's all money, isn't 100% truthful, it's not the whole story. The people pushing wokeness are claiming that money will come with time (it hasn't), they lie to higher ups about focus tests and other things to get away with more, they have friends in journalism who are willing to cover for them cause they are friends and may be financially involved in some way, and the higher-ups aren't exactly happy when they lose big because of this stuff. And I'll have to take primary sources here, when the CEO of SBI says they go out of their way to try an intimidate people I'll believe they go out of their way to intimidate people.

  • @notanotaku1101
    @notanotaku1101 3 місяці тому +1

    I think its telling that the right wing backlash against seems to avoid the capitalist explanation. If someone acknowledged that the forces of the market were pushing games away from the things they agree with, they'd have to find some way to renconcile that- either their own beliefs or capitalism has to be in error. By introducing the controversy and conspiracy or leftists infiltrating and corrupting media, they can avoid that entire issue.

    • @mattc7420
      @mattc7420 3 місяці тому +1

      Rightoids don't think greed is real, they blame it on "BlackRock".
      Because, obviously, big booba wiafu is the peak of art and woman with no makeup in the literal apocalypse is WOKE

  • @anthony8721
    @anthony8721 5 місяців тому +2

    Another great video. Cool first name btw.

  • @havono_ch
    @havono_ch 5 місяців тому +3

    SHIFT UP was always that UP-front. this is a great discussion (video), can't wait for the PC port.
    EDIT: BTW there was Neptunia x SENRAN KAGURA: Ninja Wars

  • @bluebaron6858
    @bluebaron6858 5 місяців тому +2

    Great video commentary!

  • @AshParth560
    @AshParth560 5 місяців тому +4

    33:22 its off topic but it clicked me the same way on the side of movies.
    Like same argumemts here and there being similar.
    Hell, even amother place where i stay in the middle, just being a casual for such. 😅

  • @zainmudassir2964
    @zainmudassir2964 4 місяці тому +4

    The gamers are weird

  • @PredatorCharlie
    @PredatorCharlie 5 місяців тому +1

    Compared to most videos talking about this, you made a very smart conversation of the subject, a breath of fresh air 👌 I really like playing the demo, and I can't wait for its release. I hope this story around it will mostly shut up after release.

  • @kickitoldskool
    @kickitoldskool 5 місяців тому +1

    Excellent level-headed breakdown of the situation!

  • @Zenith121691
    @Zenith121691 4 місяці тому +2

    "How apple humanely sourced their materials and how they are going to save the earth" #ESG #DEI #LarryBehaviormustbeenforcedFink

  • @eduardotorres6108
    @eduardotorres6108 5 місяців тому +1

    Great video! The games i play is not as popular when i realize few years ago.
    Interesting topic on "Safe S**" because i never bother to engage to random people unless its a topic I'm familiar with like Pokémon.
    I thought you add the Pokémon Go recent update in the video.

    • @agramuglia
      @agramuglia  5 місяців тому +3

      Sadly, the Pokemon Go controversy and Hades 2's character designs came out after I finished editing this video.

    • @eduardotorres6108
      @eduardotorres6108 5 місяців тому +1

      @@agramuglia ah hopefully part 2 of this situation or somehow add to other topics you have in the works.

    • @eduardotorres6108
      @eduardotorres6108 5 місяців тому

      @@agramuglia also what interesting that casuals of Pokémon Go not liking the avatars in tictok.

  • @DavidRYates-tk2tq
    @DavidRYates-tk2tq 4 місяці тому +1

    I really don't understand why people say the PS5 has been starved for exclusives. FFVII Rebirth alone is enough to make up for any supposed deficits, but the system has way more than that.

    • @munken7673
      @munken7673 3 місяці тому

      I Think what he meant was an original exclusives that wasn’t part of some already Big Franchise